LAPD Reports 19 Homicides In First 12 Days Of New Year
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The city of Los Angeles has experienced more than twice the number of homicides during the first 12 days of 2021 than it saw in the same period of 2020, Chief Michel Moore said Tuesday.
Moore said there had been 19 homicides in 2021, including a teenage boy killed in the San Fernando Valley Monday night and three men killed in South Los Angeles within six hours of each other on Sunday.
During the first 12 days of 2020, there were nine homicides.
"Shooting violence has continued at a velocity that does need a great deal of concern," Moore said during Tuesday's Los Angeles Police Commission meeting. "Of the 19 homicides, 12 we know, right now, we believe are involved in gangs or are gang-related in one fashion or another."
Moore said he spoke with gang intervention specialists working in the South Los Angeles and Hollenbeck divisions in an effort to find strategies to curb the increase in violence.
Some of the suggestions included increasing training for interventionists, adding staffing and ensuring new interventionists and ambassadors were able to coordinate their efforts with the Los Angeles Police Department to reduce violence.
Moore said interventionist staffing had been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and said the department was working to provide them with additional COVID-19 rapid tests so they would not have to wait for results and could, in turn, get back into the field quicker.
The police chief also said that the department was concerned about a "number of individuals that are on high-risk probation" who could be contributing to the increase in violence. He said the ongoing pandemic has impacted the ability of parole officers to supervise those on probation.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
